Although European and African efforts to reduce irregular migration have successfully lowered overall numbers entering Europe, some migrants are transiting increasingly hazardous smuggling routes across the Sahara Desert and Mediterranean Sea, risking human rights abuses and indefinite detention. The UN’s voluntary humanitarian return program assisted over 19,000 migrants to return to their home countries from Libya in 2017, up from around 3,000 assisted migrant returns from Libya in 2016. An estimated 400,000–700,000 migrants live in detention in Libya.

Geneva – IOM, the UN Migration Agency, reports that 8,407 migrants and refugees entered Europe by sea through seven weeks of 2018. This compares with 12,430 arrivals across the region through the same period last year.

9,483 surveys conducted with migrants in Italy, Bulgaria, Greece, Hungary, Kosovo, Montenegro, Romania, Serbia and The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, in 2017

Focus of the report

This report contains an analysis of the responses provided by migrants and refugees travelling along
the Central and the Eastern Mediterranean routes and interviewed under IOM’s Displacement
Tracking Matrix (DTM) activities in 2017. Male and female migrants are systematically compared.

More Activity but Fewer Fatalities Linked to African Militant Islamist Groups in 2017

Militant Islamist group activity in Africa continues to be highly context-specific. Those with strong local ties have shown considerable resilience, while ISIS has struggled to gain traction in the Maghreb.

A review of violent events involving militant Islamist groups in Africa in 2017 reveals the following trends:

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a critical public health issue globally. If we are to preserve human and animal health, policy interventions and global collaboration are vital to improve our understanding of AMR dynamics and to inform containment and mitigation strategies.

Geneva – IOM, the UN Migration Agency, reports that 5,502 migrants and refugees entered Europe by sea through 28 January. This compares with 5,288 coming ashore during a similar period in 2017. Italy accounts for approximately 58 per cent of the total, with the remainder split between Spain (22 per cent) and Greece (20 per cent).

IOM Rome reported on Monday (29 January) that 965 migrants have been rescued at sea during the weekend by Italian and international rescue ships, with some still being brought to land late Monday (and so not included in the above table).

Between 1 January and 30 November 2017, 117,042 persons arrived in Italy by sea.
This is a 32% decrease compared to sea arrivals in the same period last year (173,008). In November 2017, 5,645 persons reached Italy by sea, compared to 13,581 registered at landing points in November 2016. Sea arrivals in November were slightly lower than in the previous month, when almost 6,000 persons reached Italian shores.

This report is part of IOM’s effort to provide a comprehensive statistical overview of Libya’s current migration profile. DTM Libya’s Migrant statistical information package includes the below report, accompanied by a comprehensive user-friendly dataset and a key findings one pager.

CHAPTER 1: MIGRANT STOCK BASELINE

During October – November 2017 DTM Libya’s Mobility Tracking identified 432,574 migrants* across all 22 mantikas (regions) in Libya. Migrants were identified in 99 baladiyas and 531 muhallas.

Since 2014, the International Organization for Migration has recorded the deaths of nearly 25,000 migrants. This figure is a significant indicator of the human toll of unsafe migration, yet fails to capture the true number of people who have died or gone missing during migration. This report, the third volume in the Fatal Journeys series, focuses on improving data on migrant fatalities. It is published in two parts. Part 1 critically examines the existing and potential sources of data on missing migrants.

A new report released today by UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, shows changes in the routes used by refugees and migrants to reach Europe during the third quarter of 2017.

“Over the past months, the sea route to Greece has gained more traction, sea arrivals to Italy have reduced and we have seen migrants and refugees using increasingly diversified journeys to reach Europe,” said Pascale Moreau, Director of UNHCR’s Europe Bureau.